Russian arms exports increase 12%

Russia increased the export of weapons and military equipment by 12 percent in 2012, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated Wednesday. Delivering a speech at the commission on Russia's military-technical cooperation with foreign countries, Putin stated that Russia increased the export of weapons by 12 percent to 15.2 billion dollars in 2012. "The Russian Federation is among the unconditional leaders in the sale of weapons and special equipment. The only country that is close to Russia is the US, we have more than one fourth of the world's market," he said. "The other countries, our partners, sell much fewer weapons. Russian special military-purpose equipment is supplied to 66 countries, and we have agreements on military-technical cooperation with 85 countries. The total of currents orders are worth 4.3 billion dollars," Putin said.